Saturday, April 12, 2014
Europe Folds As Putin Tells It To Pay Ukraine's Gazprom Bill, Or Else
Another day ending in "y" means another day in which Putin plays the G(roup of most insolvent countries)-7 like a fiddle.
The latest: Europe should provide aid to Ukraine to ensure uninterrupted natural-gas deliveries to the region, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said as reported by Bloomberg.
"Russia is the only country helping Ukraine’s economy with energy supplies that are not paid for," Dmitry Peskov told reporters today in Moscow, commenting on President Vladimir Putin’s letter yesterday to 18 European heads of state. “The letter is a call to immediately review this situation, which is absurd on the one hand and critical on the other.
Said otherwise: PUTIN SAYS EUROPE GAS TRANSIT DEPENDS ON UKRAINE: IFX
Or, as we explained yesterday, Russia is quite happy to keep the EU gas flowing... as long as Ukraine has enough gas in storage to assure Gazprom it won't syphon off gas destined for Europe. So how much gas does Ukraine need to pre-stock? About $4-5 billion worth. The problem is that Ukraine doesn't have a dime to spend on gas.
So putting the question aside if Ukraine will or won't import even one bcf of Russian gas ever again (thanks to some fracking or US natgas exporting magic), what Putin just said is that if Europe wants an uninterrupted supply of gas it better find a way to fund Ukraine to the tune of up to $5 billion, or else the gas may just get shut off.
And guess what: Putin is about to win yet again:
European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger is working on a plan to help Ukraine pay some of its gas bills to Russia, he told Austria's ORF radio on Friday, saying there was "no reason to panic" about Russian gas supplies to Europe."We are in close contact with Ukraine and its gas company to ensure that Ukraine remains able to pay and the debts that the gas company has to Gazprom do not rise further," he said, adding he would meet Ukraine's energy and foreign ministers on Monday."I am preparing a solution that is part of the aid package that the IMF, the European Union and the World Bank is giving to Ukraine and from which payment for open bills will be possible."
The chass game continues: Putin X+1 - Pidgeons 0
Credit to Zerohedge
Friday, April 11, 2014
US and French Warships Have Entered Black Sea
Dr Faber is predicting a 1987-type stock market crash this year – only it will be worse.
He told CNBC that the pain in the internet and biotechnology sectors was just getting started, and the market was beginning to realise that US Federal Reserve was a "clueless organisation".
"I think it's very likely that we're seeing, in the next 12 months, an '87-type of crash," Dr Faber told CNBC. "And I suspect it will be even worse."
US technology stocks suffered their sharpest dive in more than two years overnight. Photo: AFP
Dr Faber's prediction comes after another high profile investor, Jeremy Grantham, said last month the ''next bust will be unlike any other''.
The US technology-heavy Nasdaq plummeted by 3.1 per cent on Thursday night (US time), its biggest one-day drop since November 2011. A sharp sell-off in biotechnology and momentum names, including Gilead Sciences and TripAdvisor weighed on the market, fuelling fears among inventors of a broader pullback.
"I think there are some groups of stocks that are highly vulnerable because they're in cuckoo land in terms of valuations," Dr Faber said.
"They have no earnings. They're valued at price-to-sales. And this is not a good metric in the long run."
Dr Faber, the editor of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, has already called for growth stocks to decline this year.
He said ridiculous stock valuations were not the crash catalysts, saying the Federal Reserve was also to blame.
After the Fed began to taper its massive bond buying program, minutes from its last meeting in March indicated that it may not be as eager to end its easy money policy.
"I believe that the market is slowly waking up to the fact that the Federal Reserve is a clueless organisation," Dr Faber said.
"They have no idea what they're doing. And so the confidence level of investors is diminishing, in my view.
"This year, for sure - maybe from a higher diving board - the S&P will drop 20 per cent," Dr Faber said, before correcting himself.
"I think, rather, 30 per cent. Who knows? But all I'm saying is that it's not a very good time, right now, to buy stocks."
CNBC noted that Dr Faber predicted in August last year a 1987-type crash was looming.
Since then the S&P 500 has risen about 9 per cent.
Mr Grantham said the bust would be particularly painful because "the Fed and other central banks around the world have taken on all this leverage that was out there and put it on their balance sheets.
"We have never had this before."
Mr Grantham – the cofounder and chief investment strategist at the $US112 billion ($119.18 billion) Boston-based fund manager GMO – said assets were overpriced generally.
''They will become cheap again. That's how we will pay for this. It's going to be very painful for investors,'' he said.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/wall-street-crash-even-worse-than-1987-is-coming-says-marc-faber-20140411-36gok.html#ixzz2yamoZMbc
He told CNBC that the pain in the internet and biotechnology sectors was just getting started, and the market was beginning to realise that US Federal Reserve was a "clueless organisation".
"I think it's very likely that we're seeing, in the next 12 months, an '87-type of crash," Dr Faber told CNBC. "And I suspect it will be even worse."
US technology stocks suffered their sharpest dive in more than two years overnight. Photo: AFP
Dr Faber's prediction comes after another high profile investor, Jeremy Grantham, said last month the ''next bust will be unlike any other''.
The US technology-heavy Nasdaq plummeted by 3.1 per cent on Thursday night (US time), its biggest one-day drop since November 2011. A sharp sell-off in biotechnology and momentum names, including Gilead Sciences and TripAdvisor weighed on the market, fuelling fears among inventors of a broader pullback.
"I think there are some groups of stocks that are highly vulnerable because they're in cuckoo land in terms of valuations," Dr Faber said.
"They have no earnings. They're valued at price-to-sales. And this is not a good metric in the long run."
Dr Faber, the editor of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, has already called for growth stocks to decline this year.
He said ridiculous stock valuations were not the crash catalysts, saying the Federal Reserve was also to blame.
After the Fed began to taper its massive bond buying program, minutes from its last meeting in March indicated that it may not be as eager to end its easy money policy.
"I believe that the market is slowly waking up to the fact that the Federal Reserve is a clueless organisation," Dr Faber said.
"They have no idea what they're doing. And so the confidence level of investors is diminishing, in my view.
"This year, for sure - maybe from a higher diving board - the S&P will drop 20 per cent," Dr Faber said, before correcting himself.
"I think, rather, 30 per cent. Who knows? But all I'm saying is that it's not a very good time, right now, to buy stocks."
CNBC noted that Dr Faber predicted in August last year a 1987-type crash was looming.
Since then the S&P 500 has risen about 9 per cent.
Mr Grantham said the bust would be particularly painful because "the Fed and other central banks around the world have taken on all this leverage that was out there and put it on their balance sheets.
"We have never had this before."
Mr Grantham – the cofounder and chief investment strategist at the $US112 billion ($119.18 billion) Boston-based fund manager GMO – said assets were overpriced generally.
''They will become cheap again. That's how we will pay for this. It's going to be very painful for investors,'' he said.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/wall-street-crash-even-worse-than-1987-is-coming-says-marc-faber-20140411-36gok.html#ixzz2yamoZMbc
BILL CLINTON: AN ALIEN INVASION MAY BE THE ONLY WAY TO UNITE THIS INCREASINGLY DIVIDED WORLD
They are setting the stage.........
Would contact with a race of aliens be enough to fully unite humanity? Would it cause all of us to drop our bitter quarrels and come together as one? That is apparently what former president Bill Clinton believes.
On Jimmy Kimmel Live the other night, Clinton said that an alien invasion “may be the only way to unite this increasingly divided world of ours”. He also said that “if we were visited someday, I wouldn’t be surprised”. So does he know something that the rest of us don’t? And why is he sharing this now? In recent years, the general public has been primed for the possibility of contact with aliens. There has been an endless barrage of books, movies, television shows and video games that portray human contact with extraterrestrials. It has gotten to the point where even some of the most hardcore skeptics in our society seem quite eager to embrace the possibility of extraterrestrial contact. Is this a good thing, or could the truth be that we are being set up for a great deception of historic proportions?
On Jimmy Kimmel Live the other night, Clinton said that an alien invasion “may be the only way to unite this increasingly divided world of ours”. He also said that “if we were visited someday, I wouldn’t be surprised”. So does he know something that the rest of us don’t? And why is he sharing this now? In recent years, the general public has been primed for the possibility of contact with aliens. There has been an endless barrage of books, movies, television shows and video games that portray human contact with extraterrestrials. It has gotten to the point where even some of the most hardcore skeptics in our society seem quite eager to embrace the possibility of extraterrestrial contact. Is this a good thing, or could the truth be that we are being set up for a great deception of historic proportions?
Appearances by major political figures on late night talk shows are usually highly scripted.
So it seemed odd that Jimmy Kimmel would ask Bill Clinton about UFOs. Is that something that Clinton actually wanted to talk about? When Kimmel asked his questions, Clinton seemed quite prepared with his answers. Among other things, he told Kimmel that “the differences among people of Earth would seem small” if we were to be suddenly confronted with contact by extraterrestrials…
So it seemed odd that Jimmy Kimmel would ask Bill Clinton about UFOs. Is that something that Clinton actually wanted to talk about? When Kimmel asked his questions, Clinton seemed quite prepared with his answers. Among other things, he told Kimmel that “the differences among people of Earth would seem small” if we were to be suddenly confronted with contact by extraterrestrials…
The former president said on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Wednesday that an invasion by extraterrestrials might be the best way to unite the fractious countries of our war-wracked planet.
“It may be the only way to unite this increasingly divided world of ours … think about all the differences among people of Earth would seem small if we feel threatened by a space invader. That’s the whole theory of ‘Independence Day,’” he said, referring to the hit 1996 sci-fi disaster flick.
“Everybody gets together and makes nice.”
I have posted video of Bill Clinton telling Jimmy Kimmel these things below…
This is absolutely stunning.
Credit to altheadlines.com
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